A philosophy student from Dalhousie University, Erik Nelson, published a new study arguing that testing an animal's capabilities in arithmetics can allow better understanding into just how much the animals can understand. The full findings of the paper can be found in the journal Philosophical Psychology.
In his paper, Nelson contends that if animals can accurately answer the question 'How many?', it manifests the creature's ability to comprehend the connection between the numerical amount and the things being inquired about.
In contrast, a philosopher from the University of Pittsburgh, Robert Brandom, argues that if a parrot says 'red' when shown red objects, it does not equate to the animal understanding its meaning.
On the same boat as other philosophers, Brandom says that understanding the meaning of a word depends on the comprehension of both terms and the connections between the words and other terms.
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Are Animals Literate in Math?
In an experiment done by Irene Pepperberg, a research associate and lecturer at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she shows how animals demonstrate a vast extent of arithmetical capabilities. In her work, she particularly examined African grey parrot subjects named Alex and Griffin.
During the experiments, Pepperberg would ask Alex, 'How many?' while showing the parrot a set of things laid out on a tray. Not only was Alex able to provide answers for amounts up to six, but he was also able to give the name for the objects.
Pepperberg's analysis of animals' ability to learn and understand basic arithmetic proves that Alex was able to do more than simply imitate human sounds. She adds that by giving the correct word when asked, 'How many?' Alex showed that he understood the relation between the numbers and objects being asked about.
Chimpanzees and Parrots: Math Geniuses?
Parrots are not the only animals known to have numerical intelligence, but chimpanzees have always been known to understand connections between words and labels as well.
A study from 1987 reveals how chimps can perform basic maths if there was food involved. In the experiment, researchers presented the apes with two pairs of bowls, each containing a particular amount of chocolate.
To claim their reward, they were tasked to count and add up the pieces of chocolates in the two bowls. Furthermore, the chimps had to compare the sum of another two bowls and correctly tell which was larger in amount. Results have revealed that the chimps got the answer right 90 percent of the time.
Some of these capabilities show that animals understand the fundamental connections between different words and labels. Some experts argue that these animals are doing something more than mimicking the humans' actions and sounds around them.
Animals that can do basic math portray that some animals are really capable of understanding the terms used by people and the connections between them. However, it is still questionable whether their understanding of these connections is due to learning linguistic expressions, or if their linguistic expressions merely help demonstrate underlying capabilities. Experts call for more studies to fully understand how animals truly comprehend word, numbers, and their connections with each other.
